Articles on Markets

A market is one of the many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers.

A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, and precious metals.

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Banks’ regulations are a key element to understand banks behaviour and their influence on the markets. This paper aims to go through the evolution of the Basel Accords, with a focus on banks’ capital requirements. From Basel I to Basel IV The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), founded in 1974, is the global standardContinue reading “THE FINAL BASEL III FRAMEWORK”

These last months have been characterized by an increasing importance of the role of the Repurchase Agreements in the financial markets. The rate linked to it has never been this fundamental thus attracting the attention of the entire financial world. Much attention was attributed to the unprecedented spike of Repo rates in September. Market participantsContinue reading “REPO RATE SPIKE AND FEDERAL RESERVE INTERVENTION”

The link between a country’s economic health and the behaviour of its stock index, specifically the performance of the index during periods of decreasing economic growth has always been an intriguing topic. Accordingly, the aim of this article is to illustrate the role of the DAX in the German economy and how the index movedContinue reading “Analysing the DAX in Germany’s economy”

The earnings season started again, as for every quarter, with corporates announcing results and updating their business guidance. Investors were very nervous worldwide due to geopolitics tensions such as Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans, US-China trade talks and Hong Kong protests against the Chinese government. Some bears are looking at signs for the longest-ever bull market’sContinue reading “The US economy through the eyes of this earning season”

Back in March we introduced and briefly discussed Trump’s intention to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum goods. In less than a year those trade disputes escalated in a trade war, impacting not only the two involved countries but also other trading partners, including the EU. The disaffection versus international institutions has been driven byContinue reading “US-China Trade War Effect on the EU”

What’s up buddy? At the beginning of 2018, the VIX, an instrument which tracks the volatility of the S&P500, surged dramatically showing a comeback of fear among investors (Figure 1) following a period of extreme calm started after the financial crisis. Figure 1: Higher VIX since February 2018 Source: Bloomberg February’s spike in volatility ledContinue reading “Our view on 2019”

Long we have been used to tech stocks trading at price multiples (price/earnings) at more than the industry standard has been comfortable with for decades. Benjamin Graham’s ideal PE is between 10 and 15 dollars. The Dow Industrial is trading at 25 PE, the S&P 500 is trading at 25 PE. If you thought thatContinue reading “The Retaliation of Tech”

Spotify will go public before the end of the first half of 2018 and has already filed confidentially with U.S. regulators for an initial public offering. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co to advise on the listing, acting as commission brokers that will only help selling the shares. Spotify, the privately held SwedishContinue reading “Spotify goes public, not through an IPO”

Many of us have been asking ourselves this question after President Trump announced his intention to impose 25% and 10% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, respectively. Trump’s announcement might be challenging the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) which despite evolving throughout time, have remained the WTO’s foundation since its establishment after WorldContinue reading “Are We on the Verge of a Trade War?”

3rd of January 2018, while the markets started well their year and were keeping a bullish direction before the recent increase in volatility, something else started. Yes, it’s the new European Union Markets in Financial Instruments Directive known also as MiFID II. Most people talked a lot about it during the last quarter of 2017Continue reading “Mifid II: what about the markets?”

Bitcoin: Is this time different? Spoiler: NO. Bitcoin is the buzzword of our decade, even grandmas talk about it in their tea sessions with friends. Is Bitcoin the future? Will it substitute fiat money? Has it really a value? The aim of this article is to address these questions with tested frameworks and examples fromContinue reading “Bitcoin: Is this time different?”

Today, is Tech day. Snapchat’s parent company will be trading today in the New York Stock Exchange with a price tag of $17.0 per share for a total valuation of $24 billion. It is the most awaited and the largest IPO since Alibaba started trading in 2014 with a valuation of $168bn. American capital marketsContinue reading “A ghost in the Street?”

Trump’s victory in November led up to sudden changes in financial markets. Firstly, the fiscal spending he promised has led to higher commodities price as the US government will ask for more commodities to build more facilities. The future tax reduction under Trump’s administration results in repatriation of dollars that strengthens the US currency. TheContinue reading “Bond activity after the American election”

The 2008 financial crisis has caused a great depression in the global economy and it has been particularly severe in Italy. Consequently, the banking system has suffered deeply the effects of the prolonged recession. The amount of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) has increased constantly, and now it has reached a dimension big enough to undermine theContinue reading “The NPLs in the Italian Banking System”

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The ESCP Finance Society is the oldest and largest student-run Association active in the finance field of ESCP Business School.

The mission of the ESCP Finance Society is to help ESCP students to break into the Finance Industry, organising dedicated networking events and providing useful materials to support the application and interview process.

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Mixed signals have been given throughout the COVID19 crisis; Larry Fink insists on the fact that ESG is a top priority yet 52% of investors in the USA deem that it is unnecessary to fully pursue ESG related objectives during such unprecedented and arduous times. All of this leads us to question where ESG standsContinue reading “Does ESG Shine In The Dark?”